Background
Lutz was born in Southern California in 1970.
(The Spellman Files is the first novel in a winning and hi...)
The Spellman Files is the first novel in a winning and hilarious mystery series featuring Isabel “Izzy” Spellman (part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry) and her highly functioning yet supremely dysfunctional family of private investigators. Meet Isabel “Izzy” Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors—but the upshot is she’s good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family’s firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people’s privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman. Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who’s become addicted to “recreational surveillance”); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed “Lost Weekends”). But when Izzy’s parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy’s new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there’s a hitch: she must take one last job before they’ll let her go—a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416532404/?tag=2022091-20
(YOU THOUGHT YOUR LIFE WAS COMPLICATED Private investiga...)
YOU THOUGHT YOUR LIFE WAS COMPLICATED Private investigator Isabel Spellman is back on the case and back on the couch—in courtordered therapy after getting a little too close to her previous subject. As the book opens, Izzy is on hiatus from Spellman Inc. But when her boss, Milo, simultaneously cuts her bartending hours and introduces her to a “friend” looking for a private eye, Izzy reluctantly finds herself with a new client. She assures herself that the case—a suspicious husband who wants his wife tailed—will be short and sweet, and will involve nothing more than the most boring of PI rituals: surveillance. But with each passing hour, Izzy finds herself with more questions than hard evidence. Meanwhile, Spellmania continues. Izzy’s brother, David, the family’s most upright member, has adopted an uncharacteristically unkempt appearance and attitude toward work, life, and Izzy. And their wayward youngest sister, Rae, a historic academic underachiever, aces the PSATs and subsequently offends her study partner and object of obsession, Detective Henry Stone, to the point of excommunication. The only unsurprising behavior comes from her parents, whose visits to Milo’s bar amount to thinly veiled surveillance and artful attempts (read: blackmail) at getting Izzy to return to the Spellman Inc. fold. As the case of the wayward wife continues to vex her, Izzy’s personal life—and mental health— seem to be disintegrating. Facing a housing crisis, she can’t sleep, she can’t remember where she parked her car, and, despite her shrinks’* persistence, she can’t seem to break through in her appointments. She certainly can’t explain whyshe forgets dates with her lawyer’s grandson, orfails to interpret the come-ons issued in an Irishbrogue by Milo’s new bartender. Nor can sheexplain exactly how she feels about DetectiveHenry Stone and his plans to move in with hisnew Assistant DA girlfriend . . . Filled with the signature side-splitting Spellmanantics, Revenge of the Spellmans is aningenious, hilarious, and disarmingly tender installment in the Spellman series. __________________________________________________ * Yes, plural
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/141659339X/?tag=2022091-20
("THEY'RE BAAAAACK."(Re)meet "New York Times "bestselling ...)
"THEY'RE BAAAAACK."(Re)meet "New York Times "bestselling author Lisa Lutz's "SUPERBLY COMIC" ("Daily News, "New York) Spellmans, a family in which eavesdropping is a mandatory skill, locks are meant to be picked, and blackmail is the preferred form of negotiation.When Izzy Spellman, PI, is arrested for the fourth time in three months, she writes it off as a job hazard. She's been (obsessively) surveilling a suspicious neighbor and attempting to apprehend the copycat vandal whose attacks on Mrs. Chandler's holiday tableaux eerily match the 1991-92 crime spree when Izzy and her best friend, Petra, were at their most delinquent. After the displeased management (i.e., Mom and Dad) at Spellman Investigations refuses to bail Izzy out, her octogenarian lawyer comes to her rescue. But fi rst Izzy must unveil the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as only a thirty-year-old licensed professional can. . . .
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018EXMY12/?tag=2022091-20
(The fifth in the critically acclaimed, New York Times bes...)
The fifth in the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-nominated series about a fearless private investigator Izzy Spellman and her quirky, yet endearing, family of sleuths: “Lie back and enjoy this tale of intergenerational gumshoe mayhem” (Kirkus Reviews). FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SPELLMAN HISTORY, Isabel Spellman, PI, might be the most normal member of her family. Mom has taken on an outrageous assortment of extracurricular activities—with no apparent motive. Dad has a secret. Izzy’s brother and sister are at war—for no apparent reason. And her niece keeps saying “banana” even though she hates bananas. That’s not to say that Izzy isn’t without her own troubles. Her boyfriend, Henry Stone, keeps wanting “to talk,” a prospect Isabel evades by going out with her new drinking buddy, none other than Gertrude Stone, Henry’s mother. Things aren’t any simpler on the business side of Spellman Investigations. First, Rae is hired to follow a girl, but then fakes the surveillance reports. Then a math professor hires Izzy to watch his immaculate apartment while he unravels like a bad formula. And as the questions pile up, Izzy won’t stop hunting for the answers—even when they threaten to shatter both the business and the family.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451608136/?tag=2022091-20
( “How to Start a Fire will keep you captivated from beg...)
“How to Start a Fire will keep you captivated from beginning to end.”—Town & Country “Excellent . . . Over the course of the novel we come to know intimately these three complicated women.”—Chicago Tribune “Whip smart and cunning, deeply funny and profoundly moving . . . A knockout.”—Megan Abbott, author of The Fever When college roommates Anna and Kate find Georgiana Leoni passed out on a lawn, they wheel her to their dorm in a shopping cart. Twenty years later, they gather around a campfire at a New England mansion. What came between—the wild adventures, unspoken jealousies, and one night that changed everything—is the witty, poignant story of our strongest friendships, the people who know us better than we know ourselves. Anna is the de facto leader, as fearless as she is reckless. Quirky Kate is the loyal sidekick, until she’s pushed too far. And stunning George is always desired, but just as frequently dumped. Alive with Lutz’s crackling dialogue and propulsive storytelling, How to Start a Fire pulls us into the tangled bond shared by three intelligent, distinctive, and deeply real women and pays homage to the abiding, irrational love we have for the family we choose. “Lutz joins the ranks of authors who write deeply and sensitively about the shadowy yet life-affirming terrain of female friendship.”—Globe & Mail “Lutz hits a home run in this glorious exploration of friendship . . . she portrays three fully drawn, flawed, and compelling women with fresh insight into the mysterious terrain of female friendships—a mix of shared experiences, affection, empathy, jealousy, anger, and lov
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544705181/?tag=2022091-20
(Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This t...)
Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to "Get Smart" reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors -- but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman. Part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who's become addicted to "recreational surveillance"); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed "Lost Weekends"). But when Izzy's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy's new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there's a hitch: she must take one last job before they'll let her go -- a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life. "The Spellman Files" is the first novel in a winning and hilarious new series featuring the Spellman family in all its lovable chaos.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018EXN06K/?tag=2022091-20
(A set of two books in the Spellman Files series by Lisa L...)
A set of two books in the Spellman Files series by Lisa Lutz. Titles include Curse of the Spellmans ~ Revenge of the Spellmans.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0062TX4Q0/?tag=2022091-20
(Dave, I just finished the first chapter of a new novel-a ...)
Dave, I just finished the first chapter of a new novel-a real crime novel with a dead body and all-and I thought of you... Paul and Lacey Hansen are pot-growing, twentysomething siblings sharing a modest rambler of a home in rural Northern California. When they find a headless corpse on their property they can't exactly call 911, so they simply move the body to another location. Let somebody else find it. Instead, the corpse reappears on their land. Clearly, someone is sending them a message, and it's getting riper by the day. But that's only half of the story... Enter authors Lisa Lutz and David Hayward-former real-life partners (professionally and personally) who have agreed to reunite for a tag- team mystery novel written in alternating chapters. One little problem: they disagree on pretty much every detail of how their novel should unfold. While the body count rises in Paul and Lacey's wildly unpredictable fictional world, so too does the intensity of Lisa and David's rivalry. The result is a literary brawl like no other, and a murder mystery every bit as unanticipated (and bloody).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425246841/?tag=2022091-20
Lutz was born in Southern California in 1970.
University of Leeds; San Francisco State University.
She began her career writing screenplays for Hollywood. One of her rejected screenplays became the basis for a popular series of novels about a family of private investigators, the Spellmans. During the 1990s she had many low-paying jobs, including work in a private investigation firm, and spent a lot of time writing and re-writing a Mob comedy called Plan B. Her screenplay was optioned in 1997, and was made into a movie in 2000 (released in 2001).
Variety Magazine described the movie as "torturously unfunny." She subsequently produced several other tentative screenplays, but none was picked up.
Her final effort, tentatively titled "The Spellman Files", was also rejected. At that point Lutz realized that "the story really needed more space to be told properly." She decided to write it as a novel.
She began the novel while still living in California in 2004, then decided to move into a relative"s family vacation home in upstate New York to work on it full-time. She returned to the west coast (Seattle) to write her second Spellman novel, then moved to San Francisco, where she lived until 2012.
She presently lives miles from civilization in upstate New New York
(The fifth in the critically acclaimed, New York Times bes...)
(The Spellman Files is the first novel in a winning and hi...)
(YOU THOUGHT YOUR LIFE WAS COMPLICATED Private investiga...)
(Dave, I just finished the first chapter of a new novel-a ...)
( “How to Start a Fire will keep you captivated from beg...)
(A set of two books in the Spellman Files series by Lisa L...)
(Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This t...)
(Soft cover, spine is not creased. No markings. From non-s...)
("THEY'RE BAAAAACK."(Re)meet "New York Times "bestselling ...)